Groundhog Day. It’s as if we are living in the movie Groundhog Day. Every day feels the same this week. I turn on the TV and there it is; election results. The same election results, no clear winner has been declared. Then there he is, the sitting president of the United States, spewing off about how the election is being stolen from him. Complaining like a schoolboy that lost the election for school president. But this isn’t high school, this Read more
Two old white men have dominated the news for far too long now. In an election like no other, things have finally come to a head. The United States has hijacked the world news with incessant coverage of their election in the coronaverse. Today the final votes were cast and the world anxiously awaits the results. We may not know who the new president of the United Mistakes of America will be for days, perhaps weeks to come. In the Read more
He wandered down the hallway, passing the rooms on either side. There was no pausing at the doors; he knew exactly which room to go in. The other beds were empty, the rooms waiting for the anticipated rush; a rush of patients yet to come. Would the expected rise in cases result in hospitalizations? He didn’t know. All he knew was he was going to see the man in the bed at the end of the hall. The man in Read more
Fires lit the roadside, goblins and ghouls stalked the night. Zombies guarded the gravesites. Small groups gathered in circles performing ritual sacrifices of random liquids. Two young girls braved the darkness, they stood alone watching, waiting. “Hello, Marijke, Bailey,” a boy’s voice broke through the creaks and moans that echoed into the night. ”We were waiting for you, are you ready?” Marijke gave him a mischievous look. She was happy to see her new friends Bailey and Jackson, they would Read more
I lay submersed in the water, soaking in the warm embrace of a mineral enriched bath. I was hoping to drown my pain, ease my aches, and alleviate my distress. Losing myself in the moments there was nothing but the pressure of the jets. I felt the release I craved and let myself go and floated away. With a start, I knew it was time to move. I willed myself up and weakly crawled from the cooling touch of the Read more
Big, fat, fluffy white flakes are falling into the alpine. In the valley, the leaves have turned from green to gold and brown. On the mountain tops, the trees are being freshly coated with a layer of crisp white snow. Okanagan champagne powder has been piling up on the slopes and in the trees. It looks to be an epic season of snowfall, the base is growing steadily and even the village is gathering snow. Mother Nature and U’lr the Read more
Mondays have come and gone in the days of the coronaverse. It was a Monday in March and the winter snows still clung to the ski runs and rooftops of Big White. It was a Monday I won’t forget. The first Monday I began my journey exploring the new normal I found myself in. Reality had sunk in and our ski hill closed for the season. Many other businesses soon fell victim to the panic that the pandemic invoked. Now Read more
In case anyone missed it British Columbia elected a new government yesterday. I think. Sort of, for now, except if the mail-in ballots change things. The result shouldn’t change, but who knows… The NDP won the majority they sought. They succeeded in shutting down the Green wave and beat up on the Liberal party that was ill-prepared to fight an election in a pandemic. I lost a lot of respect for John Hogan and the NDP when they called a Read more
The weather outside was frightful, the day was nigh delightful. We really weren’t ready for snow, but it snowed. And it snowed, and it snowed. We set a record in the Okanagan for October, a dubious record to say the least. We recorded the most snow for an October day since 1899. One hundred and twenty-one years ago the settlements of Penticton and Kelowna were in their infancy. I am certain they were ill-prepared to deal with such a massive Read more
It’s the seventh month of the pandemic. Thirty Mondays ago they closed Big White and we sat in fear of the unknown. We left our mountain home in shock; we packed up and went back to the valley. Big White emptied and the world stood still. It feels like seven months of Mondays since they first locked us down. I have been one of the fortunate ones this summer. I was able to work outside and ride my motorcycle to Read more